January
On New Year's Day we arrived back in England after our Aussie adventure. A bit cold!
February
For Ruby's birthday we took her and some friends for a pizza in Lewes, then Deirdre took them to see Lord of the Rings. Steve had the less boring option of taking Olivia swimming.
The patio took another step towards completion - we installed the lights (that BJ bought us for Christmas about two years ago!)
Steve spent a day helping Paul erect a new fence, and is now aching all over!
March
Went to see Billy Bragg in Brighton - great. The support was an American called Jill Sobule - she was pretty good too.
April
Finally finished the patio 
May
Tim and Kurtis paid us a flying visit (staying two nights). We went pond dipping and got some creepy-crawlies to put in the new pond. We also took them (Tim and Kurtis, not the creepy-crawlies!) down to Brighton beach so we could get stuck in some traffic.
Finished the BBQ.
Steve and Karl (our Aussie friend who lives in Kidderminster) took Ruby, Olivia and his twin sons (Olivia's age) on the Severn Valley Railway to Bridgnorth. This is a steam preservation railway, so you get to travel in old rolling stock at a sedate pace through the pretty English countryside. A bit like the journey to work, really.
After the initial excitement of seeing some elephants and water buffalo (the line passes the West Midlands Safari Park) the children all got pretty bored and restless. Fortunately for the men, the bar was open for the return leg!
June
Olivia's writing is coming along well - she can now write her name without any help!
July
Steve quit his job at KMR Software.
We had a fantastic holiday in Normandy.
August
The Barker family came to visit (with Susie) - Brian had a balloon flight booked, but it was postponed. They brought their dog, Lottie, with them, which was interesting as we'd never had an animal in our house since the cats in Australia. She was very well behaved and stayed downstairs most of the time.
Grandad took Ruby to two circuses and Olivia to one. Steve went along too.
Had an enormous argument with O2 (the thieving bastards) and have now cancelled our mobile contracts with them.
Never get an O2 phone!
September
Steve's last day at work. No more commuting. Yippee!
We have started a company called PhillipsJarvis Ltd and it is contracting to several clients in the TV software industry.
Ruby started at Chailey School (which is handy!) and she has started learning trampoline and saxophone as well as making the netball team.
Barcombe Beer Festival was a great success. Not only did money get raised for charity, nearly all the beer was drunk, not to mention the participants. We all managed at least two sessions!
October
Emily (having just passed her driving test first time - well done) turned 18. We all went up to Suffolk to help her celebrate.
Nevill Bonfire - a really wet and windy day for it - but for the first time we all marched together.
Olivia and Steve took photos of some of the many weird-looking fungi in our garden.
November
Bonfire night went off well again - Olivia marched the first procession and Ruby went to the Cliffe firesite for the first time. On the 6th it was Chailey Bonfire - the procession goes past our house so Steve took the girls. Then Steve rounded off an exhausting weekend by helping build Barcombe's bonfire, ready for their night on the 13th.
A week later, and here is the fire. It took a lot longer to build than it did to burn!
On the firesite, it was all too much for Olivia. We had to take turns to hold her. Here is Nick having his turn.
Here are some more pictures of the night:
December
Olivia's party was on the 12th at a kids' centre in Uckfield. They did 40 minutes each of painting, playing and eating - then the centre cleared up and we just went home with the presents!
Then on her birthday she got more presents.
Christmas was at Mum and Dad's this year
We painted the girls' bedrooms. Ruby's is purple (with one hot pink wall) and Olivia's is hot pink (with one purple wall). All quite striking, if you like that sort of thing.
